University of Wisconsin - Extension

Is American beef safe to eat? Yes, when it is properly handled and prepared, American beef is safe to eat, according to the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). Concerns about "Mad Cow Disease" have frightened some consumers away from eating beef, but University of Wisconsin-Extension specialists Barbara Ingham and Dennis Buege report that the risk in the U.S. is very low because of the safeguards that have been put in place.

Active monitoring has shown that the infectious agent responsible for Mad Cow Disease, also known as BSE, has not been identified in American cattle or the U.S. food supply. In fact, importing live animals and animal products from countries with BSE, particularly the United Kingdom, has been banned. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service says no beef has been imported from the U.K. since 1985. Based on its active surveillance since 1990, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports "it is extremely unlikely that BSE would be a food borne hazard in this country."

Why the concern? And what is Mad Cow Disease? The term is used to describe BSE, or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, a progressive neurological disorder of cattle. The disease originated in the United Kingdom where ruminants and other animals ate rendered livestock carcasses, including sheep infected with a brain disease called scrapie, as a protein-rich nutritional supplement.

The BSE agent is harbored in an animal?s brain and spinal cord tissue. Apparently by surviving a new rendering process, infected tissue made its way into animal feeds. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the BSE agent is highly stable, resisting freezing, drying, and heating at normal cooking temperatures, even those used for pasteurization and sterilization. Milk and milk products and animal muscle tissue do not harbor BSE and are considered safe.

BSE is related to other TSEs (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies) found in species such as mink, elk and deer, as well as scrapie in sheep and goats. The disease has been linked in the U.K. to approximately 85 cases of a new type of Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease (CJD) in younger human individuals, described as a "new variant" or nvCJD. Although, according to the CDC, there has been no incidence of nvCJD in the U.S., the disease has raised alarm because there is no treatment and it is always fatal. The original strain of CJD occurs sporadically world wide at a rate of one per million people, almost exclusively in older people.

Reported BSE cases peaked in cattle in the U.K. in 1993. It has been declining steadily since then. A ban on the use of ruminant proteins in animal feed, as well as a pre-emptive slaughter in 1989, destroying nearly 4.5 million cattle, helped slow the spread of BSE. The U.K. also banned the export of food and food products containing beef to other countries. BSE has been found in cattle in 12 European countries, with the U.K., Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland and France most affected by the outbreak.

In the U.S., there is a USDA ban on importing live cattle or other ruminants and meat products from BSE infected countries, which now includes all of Europe. The FDA has requested that products from cattle originating from countries with BSE not be used to make products intended for humans or animals (this includes dietary supplements, cosmetics, drugs, biological drugs and medial devices). Products not regulated by the FDA, including dietary supplements, are under scrutiny to determine their safety.

The FDA also banned feeding animal derived protein to ruminant animals. This ban requires compliance of the feed industry, livestock producers and the meat industry. No significant relationship has been found to date between BSE and meat handling occupations, such as butchering or rendering, according to UW-Extension meat specialist Dennis Buege.

This past January, 1,222 head of cattle in Texas were mistakenly given feed containing protein derived from other cattle. Although the risk amounted to roughly 1/4 ounce of infected feed per animal, Purina Mills voluntarily recalled the feed and the feed and animals were destroyed. Ingham and Buege both emphasize that this situation highlights the fact that producers, feed manufacturers and feed mill workers, meat industry workers and government regulators are taking no chances in keeping the U.S. food supply safe for consumers.

For more information about BSE, see the Institute of Food Technologists Web site at http://www.ift.org/, the World Health Organization Web site at http://www.who.int/inf-fs/en/fact113.html, or the Centers for Disease Control Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/.